Hello!

My name is Austin. Thank you for pulling up this post and letting me introduce myself to you.  I’ll start by how I got here. I was born in Chicago and grew up in Chicago, LA, Dallas, France, and a couple of countries in central Africa.  I went back to Illinois for college and majored in Psychology and Philosophy. I also spent 6 months of my senior year in Rwanda working with a local organization that promotes reconciliation between perpetrators and victims of the 1994 genocide.  My psychology studies and experience in Rwanda strengthened my desire for a career in mental health. After college, I moved to Austin for love, following my now wife as she started a PhD program at UT. I have spent the last 6 years working for various nonprofits around central Texas and getting my MA in Professional Counseling with an emphasis in marriage and family therapy from Texas State.

I love to travel but spend most of my vacations enjoying time with family.  I almost always prefer listening to other people to talking myself. In my free time I am usually reading or playing a game of some sort.  Following many years of throwing out the dry, brown remains of plants that didn’t make it, I have kept two different plants alive in pots for more than a year and counting.  I play video games but have only ever owned Nintendo game consoles because for me the main purpose of owning a video game console is to play games with friends. I have a puppy who embodies the mixing and melding that makes Austin (the city) so wonderfully weird.  

Probably as a result of moving around so much as a kid, I love variety and chances to learn new things.  In the last several years I have worked with everyone from kids who were going in and out of the mental hospital to kids and families grieving the death of a family member to people of all ages who have experienced trauma to kids and teens and adults who are feeling anxious or depressed to couples at every stage of a relationship. I don’t love the variety of pain that people experience. What I do love is being able to hold a safe space for people, provide some tools, and watch the strength and courage and compassion and growth and humor and ingenuity that shows up.

Thank you for taking the time to get to know me better.  If you want to know more about me, you can read my bio and get in touch at the link below!